DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Nige wrote:Don't know how you can work in all the oily gloopy gunk. Get some chemicals on it and jet wash that filth off!

I covered it with isopropyl alcohol / white spirit / detergent mixture this weekend, and jetwashed since that photo. I just haven't taken a new photo since. It's still quite greasy but I heard brushing it can damage the coating so just need to check what's safe first. It seems to be a mix of underseal and transmission oil - so not just grease and takes quite a bit of work to get it off.

Also, I don't want to wash any of the magic off.

The state of the shift rod coupling bushes probably accounts for the gear stick coming so far back that it interferes with the handbrake.

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It looks like driving this out carelessly could easily break the alloy outer part of the assembly.


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The trick is to use a well-sized socket so you can drive against the steel shaft. I worked out half way through you need to use a long one otherwise the pin hits the centre of the socket.


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Old and new bushes

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It seems unavoidable to drive the pin back in bearing against the new polyeurethane, but the bush seems to have held up. All nice and snug now.


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Also reassembled the gearshift bracket, lever and assembly with a new nylon balljoint socket. Lightly greased all the touching parts.

The springs are trickier than they look. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and I used a lot of it pressing them back in. I put the pin in one hole and an Allen key in the other to press the spring on to and then pushed them both into the spring to straighten it.

A better mechanic than I would probably have a spring compressor or some other such gizmo.

Anyway it's together and ready to go back on the car.

The penny dropped at this point that I failed to mark the joint before dismantling so there could be fun and games adjusting the linkage.

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Put the box into third gear.
Put the coupling on loose.
Tighten coupling to box shaft
Put the shifter in the car and tighten
Slide the lever to 3D in the gate pattern
Nip up the coupling clamp beyond finger tight so it won't slip
Check you have all gears
Tighten coupling sleeve.

911hillclimber wrote:Put the box into third gear...

You lost me at "put the box into third gear" What on earth does that feel like when all you have is a stub poking out from the back of the car?

The short shaft is awkward to move, pity you did not set the box in a gear before detaching the coupling.

The box you have I think is a dog leg 1st, so 3rd is to the left of the H and back on the lever.
Put the coupling on the box and tighten. Easier to manipulate the box this way.
It must be loose to the shift tube from the gear lever.

Find neutral so obviously this is the plane across the H
Looking straight at the end of the gearbox shaft...

Hope I'm right here, twist the coupling across the neutral plane anti clockwise fully and push it towards the gearbox. It should go in about 10 or 15mm and be set in position by the detent ball within the box.
The box should then be in 3rd gear

Move the lever to 3rd and tighten the clamp sleeve.
Move the lever to check you can select all the gears. Start the engine and select each gear to see if they all are correct by carefully slipping the clutch and move a few feet.
Reverse and first should be easy, 2/3 rd harder and 4/ that really hard to move.

Good luck!

911hillclimber wrote:The short shaft is awkward to move, pity you did not set the box in a gear before detaching the coupling.

The box you have I think is a dog leg 1st, so 3rd is to the left of the H and back on the lever.
Put the coupling on the box and tighten. Easier to manipulate the box this way.
It must be loose to the shift tube from the gear lever.

Find neutral so obviously this is the plane across the H
Looking straight at the end of the gearbox shaft...

Hope I'm right here, twist the coupling across the neutral plane anti clockwise fully and push it towards the gearbox. It should go in about 10 or 15mm and be set in position by the detent ball within the box.
The box should then be in 3rd gear

Move the lever to 3rd and tighten the clamp sleeve.
Move the lever to check you can select all the gears. Start the engine and select each gear to see if they all are correct by carefully slipping the clutch and move a few feet.
Reverse and first should be easy, 2/3 rd harder and 4/ that really hard to move.

Good luck!

Well I selected SOMETHING and then went through the process - only to find it felt like I couldn't select first and reverse. I figured I must have started out in first gear and it was actually fourth and fifth that weren't available. So I selected something else - pretty much top dead centre - and I reckon that was third because then the process worked perfectly. At least, the action feels great now. But I can't start and run the car just now to see for sure because it's up on ramps with various other bits hanging off.

It's not surprising a few bushes make such a huge difference because the gear lever is so long so any play is magnified by twenty or thirty times.

As it turned out I was just about able to select the gears with the short shaft.

P.S. without your instructions I think the fact the short shaft moves in reverse direction to the gear stick, would have thrown me. It's obvious once you know but hadn't occurred to me.

I cleaned up the other end too and installed the new bushing. It's pretty brutal pressing the bush in but I lubed it up and it seemed to take it. I had some lube left over from... actually, never mind.


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These grub screws got some nut lock glue to make sure they sieze and a spot of copper slip to make sure they don't.


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